During a one-week seminar on the Histories of Herodotus, known by his admirers as the “father of history,” 17 CIC faculty members explored how to use Ancient Greek texts in a broad range of courses and to enrich general education programs. The 11th Ancient Greece in the Modern College Classroom seminar, cosponsored again by CIC and the Center for Hellenic Studies and generously supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, took place in Washington, DC, July 25–31, 2016.

 

The seminar was led by Gregory Nagy, Francis Jones Professor of Classical Greek Literature, professor of comparative literature, and director of the Center for Hellenic Studies, Harvard University; and Kenneth Scott Morrell, associate professor of Greek and Roman studies, Rhodes College (TN). The participants hailed from a broad range of disciplines—including history, English, political science, and religion.

 

Participant Patrick Wadden, assistant professor of history at Belmont Abbey College (NC), remarked, “Part of the success of the seminar was that the participants were on an equal footing as interested non-experts. We each had our own background in diverse fields. This meant that everyone brought their own perspective to bear and offered different views on and interpretations of the text—and as a result, we built up a broad understanding of the text.”

 

Throughout the week, the seminar participants discussed the nine books of the Histories and explored descriptions of interactions between Greek-speaking peoples and other societies. For each book, a team of six participants led the discussions, which covered ideas of cultural identity, kingship, gender, warfare, and how Herodotus used his sources and structured his narratives. Participants also shared ideas on how to incorporate Herodotus into their future classes and worked as a group on the design of an inter-institutional course on the Histories for undergraduates. (Seminar participants have been invited to a planning meeting at the Center in November to continue to work on the course and its syllabus; the course is slated to launch in spring 2017.) In addition, faculty members were able to nominate their accomplished students to participate in the Center’s undergraduate summer internship program; subsequently students from Rhodes College and Concordia University, St. Paul (MN) were included.

 

CIC will announce details about its July 2017 Ancient Greece in the Modern College Classroom seminar later this fall. For more information, visit the program page.